Recent News

The first Olive Oil Sommelier Certification Course at the International Culinary Center in New York has sold out, just weeks after open­ing reg­is­tra­tion for the Level 1 ses­sion, said the pro­gram’s direc­tor, Curtis Cord.

The three-day ses­sion will be held October 8 – 10 at the ICC’s New York City cam­pus. It is the first-level course in the 3‑level cer­ti­fi­ca­tion program.

The Olive Oil Times Education Lab, in con­junc­tion with the International Culinary Center, announced the launch of the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion course for aspir­ing olive oil som­me­liers at the New York International Olive Oil Competition last April.

“The International Culinary Center has always been at the fore­front of culi­nary inno­va­tion, and we’re proud to launch the first Olive Oil Sommelier Program,” said Dorothy Cann Hamilton, the founder of the ICC. ​“We are excited to team up with the Olive Oil Times Education Lab to intro­duce a never-before-seen, inno­v­a­tive pro­gram to our cur­rent and future students.”

Enrollment for the first ses­sion was capped at 40 stu­dents. More than 100 olive oils from 26 coun­tries will be sam­pled and ana­lyzed dur­ing the course.

“The Olive Oil Sommelier Certification Program will bring the world’s fore­most olive oil experts and edu­ca­tors to New York and the International Culinary Center in a com­pre­hen­sive series span­ning pro­duc­tion, qual­ity man­age­ment and advanced sen­sory assess­ment,” said Cord.

The first-level course on olive oil sen­sory analy­sis will be taught by Monell Chemical Senses Center pres­i­dent Gary Beauchamp, Albert Einstein College of Medicine nutri­tion­ist Keith Ayoob, Del Posto exec­u­tive chef Mark Ladner, ole­ol­o­gist Nicholas Coleman, Chilean taste panel leader Carola Dummer Medina, noted New York mer­chant Steven Jenkins, NYIOOC pres­i­dent and Olive Oil Times pub­lisher Curtis Cord, and award-win­ning pro­ducer and taste panel mem­ber Pablo Voitzuk.

The next ses­sion will be February 4 – 10, 2017, when all three lev­els of the course will be held. Registration for the February ses­sion will begin this fall.